PANG: Magical Michael (Nintendo DS) Review

The Magical Michael of the title is the main character of this game, and the one you’ll be controlling throughout it. As the story goes, he is a famous magician who accidentally messed up a potion he was brewing, and unleashed thousands of deadly balloons into the world. Now he has to travel around the globe to stop those balloons from destroying famous landmarks and cities of various counties. This story provides a nice retro call-back to Buster Bros, as it went along similar lines, all the while providing a sturdy basis for newcomers to grab hold of in this newest edition.

The basic gameplay of PANG requires little explanation to get off the ground; move left, right, and up and down ladders with the D-pad, and fire upwards with A. Pop a balloon by firing at it, and depending on its size and colour, it’ll split into smaller balloons, or disappear altogether. Your goal is to clear all balloons on screen, all the while avoiding touching any of them as they are fatal to Michael.

The beauty of Magical Michael is in the way that Michell Corp have taken such a basic concept, and ran with it until their feet blistered and ached. In Tour Mode, the real meat of the game where you can explore the world, every single round within every single country-represented level is unique, and brings along a brand new, fresh structure, item, or situation. You may have disappearing platforms, or warp gates, or circus-type balloons that bounce on the ceiling instead of the ground. You may have to make use of a bottomless pit’s worth of item choices, including a vine-like shot that stays in place until a balloon hits it, an hourglass that slows or freezes time, a bomb that reduces larger balloons to their smallest form, or even an energy sphere that can be hit to instantly burst all inflatables on the screen. There is so much variety and design aesthetic in just one mode you’d be left wondering how there is room for it all. This becomes steadily more apparent as you progress through the game and more of it opens up, and new modes present new situations, such as the addition of a jump button or allowing players to use land mines, for example.

The original Buster Bros made use of only one screen, whereas this new incarnation of the game has DS features to play around with; ergo, double screen usage, and later on there’s a dedicated mode that makes use of the touch-screen in a fashion not too dissimilar to the Bust-a-Move series. Through availability of two screens, Mitchell have expanded the levels to include shooting from one screen to another, double-layered levels, and for Panic Mode in particular, a mode that fires endless waves of balloons at you as you bid to gain a high score, a preview of what is coming next to fire at. The gap between the screens is largely ignored here, so a balloon or item falling from the top would instantly appear on the bottom, which may faze those used to games that compensate for the gap. One area where the gap is enforced is through certain multiplayer modes that allow you to keep an eye on your opponent on one screen while you take care of business on the other. For that mode it is of no issue, but even in single play the gap is quick and easy to get used to, and PANG uses the dual screen setup - and the touch-screen - to great effect. Even the microphone gets a look in through the multiplayer feature, as it can be used to blow back certain balloons at your opponent on the top screen.

Magical Michael uses a highly colourful palette style of design throughout the game, which, despite its initial simplicity, adds bags of character and personality to what would otherwise be a trek across a wide variety, but dull and static, of world locales. As it is, it’s quite a motivating push to see how Stonehenge looks in this style, for instance, or even the Sydney Opera House of Aussie fame. The visuals do not push the DS to any particular degree, yet they complement PANG immeasurably well, providing a crisp, clear canvas for you to play on.

Sound is another area where the game more than holds its own. All tunes are uplifting, cheery, and entirely fitting for the levels they are backing in most cases, most notably with the motivational track that Panic Mode hosts, or the authentic tunes supporting the different nations of Tour Mode.

Many players would quite rightly expect a vast amount of playtime from any puzzling title, and for PANG that is certainly no issue. From the aforementioned multiplayer features, which only require one cartridge for two people to play, to the vast amounts of single player modes and difficulties that are unlocked as you progress through the main game modes, PANG will last a considerable amount of time for anyone that clicks with the concept. Aside from that, high-score enthusiasts will be in heaven with Magical Michael, as the game features not only a medal system for high numbers, but an Achievement-style system for fulfilling certain conditions. Also, Wi-Fi support comes as standard, albeit only in leaderboard form, but it is still a motivating prospect to compare your ability to that of the rest of the world. PANG: Magical Michael will no doubt fall under the radar from the glut of high profile releases over the coming months yet, as anyone that plays it will likely attest, it can easily match them in the entertainment stakes.